Browsing results for Language families
Published on February 20, 2019. Last updated on June 20, 2019.
Wong, Jock (2019). Respecting other people’s boundaries: A quintessentially Anglo cultural value. In Alessandro Capone, Marco Carapezza, & Franco Lo Piparo (Eds.), Further advances in pragmatics and philosophy: Vol. 2. Theories and applications (pp. 449-467). Cham: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00973-1_25
Abstract:
A challenge that culturally non-Anglo speakers of English face is that of understanding what respecting boundaries, an Anglo cultural value, is about. This cultural value is unfamiliar to many cultures, especially so-called ‘group-orientation’ or ‘collectivist’ cultures. This means that even if culturally non-Anglo speakers of English have a good mastery of English grammar, they may not be able to connect with culturally Anglo people if they do not respect boundaries. Understanding what respecting people’s boundaries is about can also help cultural outsiders understand related Anglo values such as personal rights and personal autonomy.
This paper explores what respecting boundaries means to culturally Anglo speakers of English and what its cultural implications are. Meanings and cultural values are represented by semantic explications and cultural scripts. For the purposes of writing semantic explications and cultural scripts, Minimal English is used. The paper has implications for intercultural communication, cultural adaptation and language pedagogy.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) boundary, (E) trespass, (S) boundaries, (S) personal questions
Published on May 4, 2019. Last updated on June 20, 2019.
Peeters, Bert (2019). The English ethnopsychological personhood construct mind “deconstructed” in universally intelligible words. Critical studies in languages and literature, 1(1), 61-77.
Open access
Abstract:
The dominance of English as the international lingua franca has led to rampant Anglocentrism and the reification of concepts that are in fact culture-specific. One such concept, often thought to refer to a universal human ‘attribute’, is the ethnopsychological personhood construct mind. This paper argues that the best weapon to combat Anglocentrism is the English language itself — or rather, a metalanguage such as NSM based on what English shares with all other languages of the world. The paper shows how far NSM practitioners have come in their efforts to demonstrate that the word mind is a cultural construct that has nothing universal about it and that cannot be used to define the ethnopsychological personhood constructs of other languages. Instead, it is just as culture-specific as any other ethnopsychological personhood construct and does not deserve any special status.
More information:
This paper builds on:
Peeters, Bert (2019). Delving into heart- and soul-like constructs: Describing EPCs in NSM. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs (pp. 1-29). New York: Routledge.
The DOIs quoted on the journal’s web site and in the PDF are incorrect [20 June 2019].
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) mind
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on January 11, 2022.
Goddard, Cliff, Maite Taboada, & Radoslava Trnavac (In press). The semantics of evaluational adjectives: Perspectives from Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Appraisal. Functions of Language, 26(3), 308-342.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.00029.god
Abstract:
The authors apply the NSM approach to the lexical-semantic analysis of English evaluational adjectives and compare the results with the picture developed in the Appraisal Framework (Martin & White 2005). The analysis is corpus-assisted, with examples mainly drawn from film and book reviews, and supported by collocational and statistical information from WordBanks Online. We propose NSM explications for 15 evaluational adjectives, arguing that they fall into five groups, each of which corresponds to a distinct semantic template. The groups can be sketched as follows: “First-person thought-plus-affect”, e.g. wonderful; “Experiential”, e.g. entertaining; “Experiential with bodily reaction”, e.g. gripping; “Lasting impact”, e.g. memorable; “Cognitive evaluation”, e.g. complex, excellent. These groupings and semantic templates are compared with the classifications in the Appraisal Framework’s system of Appreciation. In addition, we are particularly interested in sentiment analysis, the automatic identification of evaluation and subjectivity in text. We discuss the relevance of the two frameworks for sentiment analysis and other language technology applications.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) brilliant, (E) complex, (E) delightful, (E) entertaining, (E) excellent, (E) exciting, (E) great, (E) gripping, (E) impressive, (E) memorable, (E) outstanding, (E) powerful, (E) terrific, (E) wonderful
Published on August 3, 2020. Last updated on August 3, 2020.
Biegajło, Bartłomiej (2019). Explaining IT programming concepts using NSM explications: the case of ‘variable’ and ‘constant’. Linguistics Beyond and Within, 5, 7-16.
Open access
Abstract:
The paper seeks to explore a practical application of Natural Semantic Metalanguage in defining two core concepts in computer programming, i.e. the concept of a variable and the concept of a constant. The investigation of both programming concepts is carried out with reference to Apple’s Swift programming language, which is now the dominant language in creating applications designed for Apple’s devices. The explications of a variable and a constant developed in this paper are tentative definitions of the most fundamental functionalities behind the two programming concepts. They are meant to ease the learning experience of programming enthusiasts who are at the early stages of their learning path.
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) constant, (E) variable
Published on January 15, 2022. Last updated on January 15, 2022.
Wierzbicka, Anna. (2019). The biblical roots of English ‘love’: The concept of ‘love’ in a historical and cross-linguistic perspective. International Journal of Language and Culture 6(2) 225-254. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.18006.wie
Abstract
Seen from a broad cross-linguistic perspective, the English verb (to) love is quite unusual because it has very broad scope: it can apply to a mother’s love, a husband’s love, a sister’s love, etc. without any restrictions whatsoever; and the same applies to its counterparts in many other European languages. Trying to locate the origins of this phenomenon, I have looked to the Bible. Within the Bible, I have found both continuity and innovation. In the Hebrew Bible, the verb ’āhēb, rendered in the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint with the verb agapao, implies a “preferential love”, e.g. it is used for a favourite wife of a favourite son. In the New Testament, the concept of ‘love’ loses the “preferential” components and thus becomes applicable across the board: between anybody and anybody else.
The paper argues that the very broad meaning of verbs like love in English, aimer in French, lieben in German, etc. reflects a shared conceptual heritage of many European languages, with its roots in the New Testament; and it shows that by taking a semantic perspective on these historical developments, and exploring them through the rigorous framework of NSM and Minimal English, we can arrive at clear and verifiable hypotheses about a theme which is of great general interest, regardless of one’s own religious and philosophical views and commitments.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) love, (T) English
Published on July 28, 2020. Last updated on July 28, 2020.
Habib, Sandy (2019). Sin in English, Arabic, and Hebrew: a case of true translation equivalence. International Journal of Arabic Linguistics, 5(1), 20-44.
Open access
Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to investigate English sin and its Arabic and Hebrew counterparts. It is demonstrated that each of these three words is polysemous, having three meanings. Two of these meanings are religious, i.e. related to the word God, while the third is non-religious. It is also demonstrated that the three target words are true translation equivalents, as they are used in the same way in all contexts. This paper is a contribution to the study of nouns, a field that has not been given adequate attention by semanticists. It is also a contribution to the field of theosemantics, the interface between religion and the scientific study of meaning.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ḫaṭīʾa خطيئة, (E) ḫet חטא, (E) sin
Published on February 16, 2019. Last updated on June 20, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff, & Anna Wierzbicka (2019). Direct and indirect speech revisited: Semantic universals and semantic diversity. In Alessandro Capone, Manuel García-Carpintero, & Alessandra Falzone (Eds.), Indirect reports and pragmatics in the world languages (pp. 173-199). Cham: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78771-8_9
Abstract:
The new interpretations of ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ speech presented in this chapter are framed using simple and cross-translatable words and phrases, i.e. using a language that is transparent both to linguists and to the speakers whose ways of speaking the analyst is trying to understand.
In relation to ‘direct speech’, the authors present linguistic generalizations about two forms of quoted speech, which, they claim, are very likely to be found in all languages of the world. The semantics of logophoric constructions in West African languages are examined next, with particular reference to Goemai, which has been claimed to have no direct speech. It is argued instead that logophoric constructions in Goemai are forms of direct speech on any reasonable, semantically-based definition and that, until proof of the contrary, direct speech is a language universal.
The final part of the paper is about ‘indirect speech’, focusing on the English say that… construction.
An overall theme of the paper is that specialized and hybrid forms of reported speech, including logophoric speech, reflect cultural concerns and practices.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) [direct speech], (E) dó, (E) ke
Published on November 13, 2019. Last updated on February 9, 2020.
Farese, Gian Marco; Asano-Cavanagh, Yuko (2018/19). Analysing nostalgia in cross-linguistic perspective. Philology, 4, 213-241.
DOI: https://doi.org/103726/PHIL042019.6
Abstract:
This paper presents a contrastive semantic analysis of the English nostalgia, the Italian nostalgia and the Japanese 懐かしい natsukashii adopting the methodology of the NSM approach. It is argued that: (i) emotion terms of different languages reflect different and culture-specific conceptualizations of human feelings; (ii) the Anglo conceptualization of feelings is not valid for all cultures; and (iii) linguistic analysis is central to the analysis of human feelings. The paper challenges the claim made by some psychologists that the English word nostalgia expresses a feeling that is pancultural and criticizes the use of English emotion terms as the basis for discussions on human feelings.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) natsukashii 懐かしい, (E) nostalgia
Published on August 15, 2021. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Vanhatalo, Ulla; Tissari, Heli; Lilja, Taru; Vehkalahti, Kimmo; & Siiroinen, Mari. (2019). “Something bad can now happen to me here”: Meaning components of emotion words. SKY Journal of Linguistics 32 (2019), 145–179
Abstract:
This paper reports on how people connect explications of emotion words to the terms they are meant to explicate. We focused on the Finnish counterparts to the following words: anger, disgust, fear, joy, love, sadness, and surprise. Our primary findings show that our participants, who were native speakers of Finnish, made the expected matches between Natural Semantic Metalanguage-based explications and the corresponding emotion words. However, there were significant differences between the emotion words, with the match rate ranging from 93% for ‘love’ to 51% for ‘sadness’. This research also contributes to our understanding of the meaning components of emotion concepts, and it may help people to talk about emotions in depth without using the conventional vocabulary for emotions.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) amae 甘え, (E) happy
Published on January 10, 2022. Last updated on January 10, 2022.
Tissari, Heli, Vanhatalo, Ulla. & Siiroinen, Mari. (2019). From corpus-assisted to corpus-driven NSM explications: The case of Finnish viha (anger, hate). In Lege artis. Language yesterday, today, tomorrow. The Journal of University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava. Trnava: University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, 2019, IV (1), June 2019, p. 290-334. ISSN 2453-8035
Abstract:
NSM researchers have not used corpus data very systematically thus far. One could talk about corpus-assisted rather than corpus-based or corpus-driven research. This article suggests a way to not only base research on corpus data, but also to let it guide us in defining words in terms of NSM. It presents a new method, which we have developed. Our data come from the Suomi24 Sentences Corpus and concerns the Finnish emotion words viha (‘anger, hate’), vihata (‘to hate’) and vihainen (‘angry’).
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) anger, (E) viha, (E) vihainen, (E) vihata
Published on November 9, 2019. Last updated on November 9, 2019.
Farese, Gian Marco (2019). Italian discourse: A cultural semantic analysis. Lanham: Lexington.
Abstract:
Using NSM methodology, this book presents a comprehensive analysis of the most important Italian cultural key words and cultural scripts that foreign learners and cultural outsiders need to know to become linguistically and culturally proficient in Italian. It focuses on the words and speech practices that are used most frequently in Italian discourse and that are uniquely Italian, both because they are untranslatable into other languages and because they are reflective of salient aspects of Italian culture and society. The book sheds light on ways in which the Italian language is related to Italians’ character, values, and way of thinking, and it does so in contrastive perspective with English. Each chapter focuses on a cultural keyword, putting it into cultural context and tracing it through a series of written texts including novels, plays, poems, and songs.
Table of contents:
- Parlami e ti dirò chi sei
- Che bello!
- Una brutta storia
- Italiani, brava gente
- Italiani sapientoni
- Italiani attori
- Italiani comandanti
- Conclusione
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on February 20, 2019. Last updated on June 20, 2019.
Asano-Cavanagh, Yuko (2019). Inochi and tamashii: Incursions into Japanese ethnopsychology. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs (pp. 30-57). New York: Routledge.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315180670-2
Abstract:
Japanese has several personhood terms that lack equivalents in other languages. Two such terms are inochi and tamashii, neither of which has been investigated. In English, inochi is usually translated as life. However, this poses significant issues since the modern English word life is polysemous. Many of its meanings cannot be translated into Japanese by means of the word inochi, which has its own and contextually different meanings. Similarly, tamashii is often translated as soul but this term also has multiple interpretations in the source language.
This chapter explores the meaning of inochi and tamashii using NSM. The results of the analysis indicate a core component of inochi is ‘this something can be a part of someone one time, not many times’. The results also show that a fundamental meaning of tamashii is ‘this something can be a part of someone many times’ and ‘this something cannot die’.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) inochi 命, (E) kokoro 心, (E) tamashii 魂
Published on February 20, 2019. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Hill, Deborah (2019). Longgu: Conceptualizing the human person from the inside out. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs (pp. 58-81). New York: Routledge.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315180670-3
Abstract:
The Longgu people (Solomon Islands) conceptualize the human person as consisting of two parts, suli (‘body’) and anoa (roughly, ‘spirit’). Understanding the concept of anoa requires an understanding of other concepts, including agalo ‘ancestor spirit’ and Marapa, the place of ancestor spirits. This chapter discusses and explicates these culture-specific terms in Minimal English. The author argues that the conceptualization of the human person in Longgu can be described as seeing a human person ‘from the inside out’: rather than conceptualizing the human person as something visible (a body), with something invisible inside, Longgu people think in terms of what is inside (a ‘spirit’), and then as what can be seen on the outside (a body).
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) agalo, (E) anoa, (E) Marapa, (E) zabe
Published on November 22, 2020. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Sadow, Lauren (2019). An NSM-based cultural dictionary of Australian English: From theory to practice. PhD Thesis, Australian National University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25911/5d514809475cb (Open Access)
This thesis is a ‘thesis by creative project’ consisting of a cultural dictionary of Australian English and an exegesis which details the theoretical basis and decisions made throughout the creative process of this project. The project aims to produce a resource for ESL teachers on teaching the invisible culture of Australian English to migrants, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) (e.g. Wierzbicka, 2006) as a theoretical and methodological basis. The resource takes the form of an encyclopaedic dictionary focussing on Australian values, attitudes, and interactional norms, in response to the need for education resources describing the cultural ethos embodied in Australian English (Sadow, 2014).
Best practice for teaching intercultural communicative competence and related skills is to use a method for teaching which encourages students to reflect on their experience and analyse it from an insider perspective (Tomlinson and Masuhara, 2013). This thesis takes the position and demonstrates that an NSM-based descriptive method can meet these practical requirements by providing a framework for describing both cultural semantics and cultural scripts. In response to teacher needs for a pedagogical tool, I created Standard Translatable English (STE)—a derivative of NSM specifically designed for language pedagogy.
The exegesis part of this project, therefore, reports on the development of STE and the process, rationale, and results of creating a cultural dictionary using STE as a descriptive method. I also discuss the theoretical grounding of teaching invisible culture, the best-practice requirements for creating teaching materials and dictionaries, my methods for conducting user needs research, and the results, and the ultimate design choices which have resulted in a finished product, including supplementary materials to ensure that teachers are well prepared to use an NSM-based approach in pedagogical contexts.
The main body of this project, however, is the cultural dictionary—The Australian Dictionary of Invisible Culture for Teachers—comprising approximately 300 entries which describe, in STE, essential aspects of the values, attitudes, interactional norms, cultural keywords, and culture-specific language of Anglo-Australian English. The cultural dictionary is formatted as an eBook to enhance accessibility and practicality for teachers in classroom contexts. Drawing on previous dictionaries and on lexicography, the entries include a range of lexicographical information such as examples, part-of-speech, and cross-referencing. This innovative cultural dictionary represents the first targeted work into the applications of NSM and NSM-derived frameworks. It is the first dictionary of invisible culture in Australian English in this framework, and the only current resource which is aimed at maximum translatability for the English language education context.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on February 20, 2019. Last updated on June 20, 2019.
Mackenzie, Colin (2019). Exploring Old Norse-Icelandic personhood constructs with the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs (pp. 116-145). New York: Routledge.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315180670-5
Abstract:
Old Norse-Icelandic is the only early medieval language to contain lengthy vernacular accounts of the mythology and pre-Christian practices obliquely evidenced in other Germanic languages. Because of this, Old Norse-Icelandic evidence has been used to reconstruct the nature of the ancestral Germanic psychological system and to inform interpretations of personhood constructs in other Germanic languages, whose surviving literatures are far more Christianized. Old Norse-Icelandic material has also been approached from the standpoint of circumpolar shamanistic beliefs; it has been argued that some features of Germanic psychology are the product of early contact with these circumpolar traditions.
This chapter presents a semantic explication of hugr, the principal personhood construct in Old Norse-Icelandic, and is based on linguistic constructions used in Old Norse-Icelandic texts. The explication is framed in NSM to facilitate comparisons with personhood constructs in contemporary languages and cultures, free from the obfuscating terminology of present-day English. It is shown that hugr has less in common with circumpolar personhood constructs than proponents of Old Norse-Icelandic shamanism advocate and that it differs in a number of ways from its Old English analogue mōd.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) fylgja, (E) hugr, (E) mōd, (S) courage and bravery, (S) hostile intentions, (S) shape-shifting
Published on June 19, 2020. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Aznárez-Mauleón, Mónica (2019). La fórmula de rechazo ¡Vete a … ! en español peninsular: una propuesta de análisis desde la Metalengua Semántica Natural (NSM). Sociocultural Pragmatics, 7, 421-444.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/soprag-2019-0008 – Open access
Abstract:
This paper analyses 19 routine formulae from Peninsular Spanish that share the same syntactic pattern (Vete a + noun phrase or Vete a + verb phrase) and are described by dictionaries as expressions of rejection towards the interlocutor. On the basis of previous classifications, these expressions could be considered subjective, affective and attitudinal expressive formulae, because they are used to show the speaker’s attitudes and emotions. However, on the one hand, complex concepts such as affective expression, attitudinal or expression of rejection are not very enlightening when describing this kind of expression to speakers of other languages or to speakers of a different variety of Spanish. On the other hand, given that at least 19 expressions of this kind exist in Peninsular Spanish, it is reasonable to think that there may be some differences of meaning between them. The present study aims to meet these two challenges by applying NSM methodology to the semantic-pragmatic analysis of these units. This paper offers a first approach to this kind of expression through the elaboration of semantic-pragmatic explications of the different groups of formulae that, on the basis of the examples found, have been established in the study.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) vete a
Published on August 3, 2020. Last updated on August 3, 2020.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2019). Los vocativos de cariño en español peninsular: un enfoque desde la Metalengua Semántica Natural. Sociocultural Pragmatics, 7(3), 445-467.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/soprag-2019-0013
Abstract:
This article adopts an ethnopragmatic approach to the interpretation of linguistic strategies through their relation with cultural aspects which underlie their usage. The focus is on the relation between Spanish cultural scripts and nominal forms of address (terms of endearment) used in Peninsular Spanish. Cultural scripts would appear to be the perfect tool for explicating the sociocultural premises behind the interpretations we make of the function that terms of endearment have in Spanish politeness. Of particular interest are typically
Spanish scripts of “expressiveness”, “complimenting others”, “treating others with affection” and “being friendly”, and terms of endearment such as alma, ‘soul’, vida, ‘life’, cielo, ‘heaven’ and cariño, ‘love’. The explication of the semantic content of the terms of endearment on the one hand and the underlying sociocultural values on the other, applies the method of semantic and pragmatic analysis known as NSM.
More information:
Written in Spanish.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) cariño, (E) cielo, (E) dolor, (E) mi alma, (E) mi vida, (S) cariño, (S) expressiveness, (S) friendliness
Published on February 20, 2019. Last updated on January 26, 2020.
Svetanant, Chavalin (2019). Tracing the Thai ‘heart’: The semantics of a Thai ethnopsychological construct. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs (pp. 82-115). New York: Routledge.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315180670-4
Abstract:
This chapter sheds light on the semantic journey of chai ใจ, a key cultural concept in Thai culture. Chai is a person’s innermost secret part, linked to the body, with a dynamic capacity to move around and change its shape, size, colour, and even temperature, depending on the circumstances.
The chapter surveys the lexical meaning and multiple ways in which chai is used in contemporary Thai, then takes a historical turn to examine the semantic development of the word from its earliest attested uses to the present day, relying on data from a wide range of classical and contemporary sources. The analysis reveals that the primary conceptuality of the personhood construct embedded in the word chai ใจ has remained relatively stable since its first appearance in the 13th century, when it was used to refer to a person’s disposition, representing a ‘locus’ where psychological activity occurs. The literary data in the later periods demonstrates massive growth in cognitive and cultural salience with its occurrence in a steadily increasing number of metaphorical expressions and idioms. The chapter concludes with the explication of the modern folk concept of chai ใจ, using English and Thai NSM to avoid cultural bias.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) chai ใจ
Published on July 28, 2020. Last updated on July 28, 2020.
Thompson, Rachel (2020). Common Akan insults on GhanaWeb: a semantic analysis of kwasea, aboa and gyimii. In Bert Peeters, Kerry Mullan, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 2. Meaning and culture (pp. 103-122). Singapore: Springer.
DOI:
Abstract:
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) aboa, (E) gyimii, (E) kwasea
Published on January 26, 2020. Last updated on February 9, 2020.
Amberber, Mengistu (2020). The conceptual semantics of alienable possession in Amharic. In Kerry Mullan, Bert Peeters, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 1. Ethnopragmatics and semantic analysis (pp. 207-222). Singapore: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9983-2_11
Abstract:
This study investigates the semantics of alienable possession in Amharic, with particular reference to a recent proposal in the NSM framework according to which ‘true possession’ or ‘ownership’ is more adequately expressed by the semantic prime (BE) MINE than by the (now abandoned) prime HAVE. The author argues that this claim is borne out by data from Amharic. It is shown that the verb allə ‘have’ cannot reliably distinguish between true possession and other types of possessive relations, whereas the sequence jəne nəw ‘it is mine’ is consistently associated with ownership. The study also briefly examines the semantics of two sets of verbs in which the semantic prime for alienable possession plays a key role.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) awasə, (E) awərrəsə, (T) Amharic
